Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-Nine

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Ivor was pretty thankful for Tala's quiet thoughts, if her unshielded thoughts were anything like her speaking voice, he'd have had a headache already.
He nodded slowly.

James looked nervously up at the doctor, then nodded. "Okay man, I'm gonna hold you still. Just try to relax, I'm going to be as gentle as possible."
He looked at all Armin's legs, trying to figure out how to do this. He could hold Armin's bad leg still no problem, but the other seven might wiggle, maybe. He wasn't sure how much energy Armin had left. And did his body need to be held steady? He looked at the doctor again, "Any tips on how I should do this?"

"just keep him up, stop him falling." She told him as she slipped away from Armin to fetch her medical kit.

Armin looked worried, but he was too weak and exhausted to put up much of a protest.

James nodded and moved to steady Armin. "You're okay man, she knows what she's doing, even if I'm a little clueless." He managed a small smile. "It's almost done, and then you can take a nice, long rest."

Armin took a deep breath and sort of cowered into James' grip. James would have to be careful, the exposed new exoskeleton was very soft still.

The doctor got out some sharp blades and got to work, holding Armin's leg steady as she made very careful cuts along the length of the old shell. She had to be extremely careful, cut too deep and she'd cut into his new leg.

James did his best to hold Armin without putting too much pressure on any part of his exoskeleton, remembering how the doctor had said it would take weeks for the exoskeleton to harden fully. Damaging it wouldn't just be painful for Armin, if something cracked, James was pretty sure that could be deadly.

He watched the doctor work, but then forced himself to focus Armin, who looked scared as well as exhausted. "It's okay man, just a little longer. I've got you."

The doctor worked steadily, cutting along the edge of the leg and prying it open with her hands. "try now."

Armin pulled, grimacing in pain. The doctor held his leg and helped and slowly the new leg emerged.

Armin let out a deep sigh of relief as the doctor rose back up and helped him to wriggle out of the last bits of his old shell.

"You are done my friend." She told him.

Armin nodded weakly, managing to stand on his own eight legs and sinking down into a resting position, panting a little and stretching. It felt a lot better to be free, though he was drained and exhausted. His leg ached but otherwise he felt better. Tired but better. He inhaled deeply, drawing in air to help expand his new exoskeleton.

The doctor scanned him one more time to check for any damage.

Armin's new skin was a pale greenish tint currently and semi transparent in parts, his hair shock white and his markings barely visible. Over time as it all hardened the colour would intensify, but right now his soft shell was a rather ghostly and you could see his heart beating in his abdomen and the ridge of bone that made the Vavare spine picked out in clear detail.

James looked relieved as the last piece of the old exoskeleton came away, and Armin was finally able to relax. For a few seconds all he could do was stare at his friend, so glad he was alive, and then unable to look away because it was freaky to see someone's internal organs through their skin. Like, holy crap. Not every day you could watch someone's heart beating, and not every day you were so happy to have such an obvious sign that they were alive.
"You did it, man," he said, laughing a bit dizzily. He finally tore his eyes away from Armin and looked to the doctor, "You're a hero, we could never have done this without you."

The doctor smiled. "Nonsense, Armin did most of the work."

"Thank you." Armin looked back at the two of them gratefully.

"You should rest now." The doctor told him.

Armin nodded slowly. "yes..." He was so tired, he wasn't going to move from this spot now.

"Yeah, you guys were both awesome," James informed them. He smiled softly at Armin. "Sleep well. I'll be here if you need anything." He wasn't going to leave Armin, he felt way too protective of the guy right now.

Armin smiled weakly. "thank you my friend..." He murmured.

The doctor bowed her head and packed her things away. "I will let you rest and return in the morning to check how you are progressing."

James smiled at the doctor. "Thanks." He looked hesitant, "Is it okay to get rid of the old skin?" He didn't know, maybe vavare had some sort of ritual they did with it.

The doctor nodded. "Are you alright to dispose of it yourselves?"

Armin nodded.

"Yep, Vestia and I can take care of it," James said. He was pretty sure he knew where the nearest large trash disposal chute was, hmm.

"thank you." Armin murmured.

"Yes, thank you. I do hope this was helpful to observe." the doctor bowed her head to James as she got her breathing kit back on.

"Very helpful. Thanks to you, and with some studying, the medical team here should be able to handle a molt next time," James said gratefully. He went to collect the discarded skin, probably better to dispose of that quickly since it was creepy looking as heck.

the doctor bowed her head as she slipped her breathing mask on. "Weaver be with you." She told them both. "I will see you in the morning." She gathered her bag and left them to it.

"See ya," James said. He watched the doctor go, then got the skin. "I'm gonna take care of this. Be right back, man."

Armin was too tired to even nod, he murmured a very vague sound that might have been alright.

Carrying nearly 6 foot of shed exoskeleton was going to be an interesting experience for James.

James tried to figure out how best to carry this thing. It was big and ungainly, not to mention creepy looking.

He finally decided to grab it by whatever part of it looked the most sturdy and easy to grip, and dragged it out into the hall and to the garbage disposal.

The things he did for a paycheck.

Once it has been disposed of, he went to wash his hands and change into fresh clothes. He also texted Kay [molt over, Armin ok. Im staying w him].

Then he headed back to Armin's room, not bothering to knock when he let himself in, because he figured Armin was probably asleep already.

Kay texted back [Glad to hear it, went without complication? Is doctor still here?] He looked relieved, it was one less thing to worry about, mostly. Armin still had to recover but the most dangerous part was done with right?

--

Armin was sleeping standing up, Vavare couldn't really lay down after all.

[Doc left 4 night. no major complications, she had to help some with his hurt leg but the rest he did on his own] James texted to Kay. [poor dude's asleep now]
He went to plug into a power outlet not to far from Armin, sitting and leaning against one wall.

Kay replied [Alright, keep an eye on him. ] He was fairly certain James and Vestia could keep a good eye on Armin for the night.

He went back to work.

[Will do, buddy. don't save me any work, im tired :P ]
James looked at Armin for a while, wrote a brief note to Asher, then switched to power saving mode. Not like he needed to be awake right now.

JUNE 24 2790 (dsync'ed from SD)

James kept an eye on Armin all night, being careful not to wake him unnecessarily. He was taking his job very seriously, he really wanted to make sure his friend was going to be okay.

~~
Ethan was kind of enjoying having the new passengers around. He wandered up to the star dragons' level to see if they'd let him put up posters to advertise the benefits of getting a library card.

~~
Some of the androids had gone to the cafeteria to help out this morning, Tobias and one of the Terran United androids were studiously inspecting a pancake recipe and trying to locate ingredients.

Amity cheerfully greeted the androids.

---

Armin slept heavily and remained sleeping well beyond morning. He was thoroughly exhausted and weak.

----

Matt had met up with Kay for physio, this time outside of the pool. Kay had decided that Matt's back was okay enough to see if he could take a few aided steps, though he was given a lecture about how he must not under any circumstances do anything other than what Kay told him and if he did he'd likely never walk again.
Scaring Matt into behaving seemed to work. he took this whole learning to walk again thing very seriously.

Kay was trying very hard to distract himself, which meant a lot of work and seriousness.

---

Hewitt snoozed. Maybe he'd go annoy Ethan later, maybe he'd make ethan come to him. Maybe he'd even go harrass Amity instead, just for a change. Hah.

---

Silence was prowling around one of the lower decks, exploring. She found the size of this ship fascinating and she was insatiably curious.

---

Ivor had worked up enough courage to leave his room alone and go for a wander, but unlike his sister he remained close to the familiar parts of the ship. He didn't much want to get lost, or stumble into somewhere he wasn't supposed to be.

"Good morning, Amity," Tobias said, looking up from the recipe to smile robotically at the drone. "How are you this morning?"

The other android, Carlos, had his head in a cabinet and was looking for some specific type of flour. He ducked out of the cabinet and smiled at Amity, albeit much more naturally than Tobias had. "Hey there, Amity."

"I am well, thank you." Amity smiled his cheerful smile. "Do you require any assistance?" He tilted his head, not really sure what the heck they were actually doing.