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 wandered into the med bay. He saw Kay and looked amused, man this guy was a workaholic. "Hey man, planning to join the janitorial team? We're always hiring."

~~
"You could probably get pets now," Carlos Ivor. "This isn't a hospital." He frowned though, what sort of hospital had Ivor spent that much time in? Weird.

"The ranch is great," Ellie said. "I helped got the plants in there. The animals are cool too though."

"No cats, please." Jewel said quickly then ducked her head. Yeah, the downside of being tiny, some animals thought you were a toy.

Kay made a face and grabbed for his tablet [With my brother laid out, there's only so much the cleaning bots can do.] He wrote. [How's Armin?]

---

"N.. no rats, so.. don't.. don't need a cat..." Ivor pointed out.

James nodded. "Yeah, with your brother not back on his feet and me doing medic stuff, I guess we need volunteers more than usual." He shrugged, "Armin seems okay so far. Super tired out of course, and super fragile, but no complications other than his bad leg, which the doctor had to help him with during the molt. It sucks to have to shed your exoskeleton though, poor guy."

~~
Ellie burst into giggles. "We used to have a talking rat and a talking cat on board," she said. "But okay, no nonsapient cats. Maybe nonsapient rats though? They're sorta cute if they can't talk."

Jewel frowned a little as she looked to Ellie. "You did?" She was glad they weren't here now.

"Yeah! The cat was named Crazy, and he could fly shuttles and stuff, despite having, you know, paws. And being, you know, cat size." Ellie shook her head at the memory. "He was a jerk, we got in a fight once. I don't remember what it was about, but it was totally his fault. And Asher dumped water on us to break it up. He's a jerk too."

Kay nodded, it did sound unpleasant. [Well that's one less thing to worry about at least.] He rested the broom against a desk. [It does make you rather appreciate an internal skeleton.] He smiled weakly.

---

"t.. talking...?" Ivor looked wary. "A... animals are... aren't supposed to talk."

"Oh god yes," James agreed. "I mean humanoids have to deal with some crap too, like the having babies thing and the puberty thing, but having to peel off your skin every few years is nasty." He looked curious, "Speaking of janitors though, how's Matt doing? I haven't been keeping up on his progress as well as I should have, probably."

~~
"Well the rat and the cat totally did. It was unnatural, man. The rat was mentally enhanced with drugs, the cat was just bizarre," Ellie explained.

"That would be interesting to see, though I also don't want to see it." Jewel said and shook her head a little, going back to eating her meal.

Kay nodded. [He's doing well. He actually seems to be taking this seriously, which is a first. The idea of never walking again has proven to be a very good motivator.] Kay shook his head, poor matt, he really couldn't deal with being made to sit still so long.

----

Ivor shook his head. "n.. not right..." He said with conviction.

"There's nothing wrong with an animal being smart enough to talk," Tobias said. "It's weird sure, but it's not a bad thing." He smiled fakely at Jewel, "Besides, they're less dangerous if you can discuss things with them."

Ellie shook her head. "I'm with Ivor, it's messed up."

~~
"Yeah, that has to be rough on him. He's such an energetic guy, and that's such a big life change to go through for anyone," James said. He knew how hard it was on Asher, no doubt Matt was having a similarly crappy experience. "Good for him for putting in the effort." He shook his head, "Man, this has to be weird for you though. Just like... wheelchairs everywhere."

I guess, but it is still very unusual." Jewel said uncertainly. Her people were the closest she wanted to get to talking animals.

Kay looked tired, he shook his head. [Both of them will get better with time and effort. I've seen people recover from far worse injuries.] Yeah, being a military nurse sucked. So many horrific wounds. He frowned. [I have to keep telling myself that Matt will recover and that he will be on his feet again. He took a few steps today, with support but still, that's progress. Seeing Talia again is a good motivator it seems.] He exhaled deeply. He missed Danika terribly.

---

Ivor kept quiet, he had nothing more to add to this and was too nervous to try.

"Very unusual," Tobias agreed. He returned to taking dishes away for the bots to clean later. "Not wrong, but I haven't seen talking animals before."

Ellie shook her head and ate another pancake.

~~
James nodded. "Yeah, Asher's gonna recover faster, but if Matt's putting in the effort then I'm sure he'll get there too. Nothing like a hot girl-boy-friend to motivate you, I guess" He smiled a little, although it faltered as he noticed the look on Kay's face, "Matt's able to take steps now though? Hey, that's awesome. If he keeps it up, maybe we won't even need to go all the way into the Imperium. "

Kay nodded slowly. [But don't mention that to him. I'm worried he'll push himself too hard and do more damage.]

"Yeah, your brother does seem like the stubborn overachiever type. I'll be careful what I say to him," James said. "Is there any other medical stuff I should be doing? I dunno what all you and Tori have been doing lately." Judging by Kay's sweeping, maybe not much had happened though.

Kay looked around [All the paperwork is done and filed, all the new supplies are shelved and catalogued] He'd been busy. He looked a little sheepish, he had to learn to pace out work, he wasn't good at doing that and now he didn't have much left to do. Damnit. [Take a break. I'll check in on Armin later.] Yes, something to do

"Thanks, man. You should take a break too," James said. "I mean cleaning things is great, but you should like... have fun."

Jewel stayed quiet as she ate her breakfast, sitting back a little when she was done. "That was very good."

"Thank you. We're glad you liked them," Carlos said with a smile. Tobias nodded in agreement.

Kay frowned, then shook his head. [I'm fine.]

---

"t.. thank you." Ivor added.

James opened his mouth to argue, then thought the better of it and nodded. "Okay man. If you wanna do some jousting or something later, I'll be in the holodeck, winning the hands of fair princesses and princes." He couldn't boss Kay into going, the guy was pretty darn stubborn, but he might as well invite him.
He knew Asher would prefer if Kay didn't spend all week working, unrealistic as that hope was.

~~
Carlos smiled at Ivor, cleared away the last of the mess, and looked to Tobias. "We should probably, you know, work now."

Tobias nodded. "I guess so."

Kay tilted his head. [Don't injure yourself again.]

---

"w.. what is your job?" Ivor asked.

James snickered. "It's fiiiine, they're setting up a robot med bay, remember?" More seriously he added, "I always wear modern armor now, so the risk is smaller anyway. See ya later, Kay!"

~~
"Basically anything Vestia thinks needs to be done," Carlos said. "Today we're working on settling up facilities for all the new people, you know, bringing up furniture and painting walls and stuff."

"We've started working on a repairs facility for us androids," Tobias said. "And a lot of stuff for the dragons is still being finished up." He smiled.

Kay looked skeptical but he waved, and setting his tablet down, he went back to sweeping.

---

"they're... staying f.. for.. the long term?" Ivor asked. So many minds, so so many people.

James headed off. On a whim he decided not to go straight to the holodeck, instead going to see if he could find Matt.

~~
"Vestia seems to think a lot will be staying," Tobias said.

"Yeah, some of them are going away, but I'm pretty sure most of the dragons want to stay with us until they have a planet," Ellie said. "And the androids are staying too, cause they can't leave," she added.

Matt was finishing some lunch, or breakfast, whatever. Food.
He looked up when James came in, wiping his face. "Hey?" He looked a bit tired but in relatively okay spirits.

---

Ivor nodded slowly. "n.. nowhere else to go..." He mumbled.