UPON VESTIA: CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

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Asher considered his words for a few seconds, glancing around the room as he thought, then looked to Kay again. "I've been thinking over everything that's happened today, and I feel like it would be wrong for me to leave Terra before the androids have been granted their freedom," he said. "I think it might be in the best interests of the children and the androids if I stay on Terra while Vestia goes on to the Imperium." He wished he could have phrased it better, but he just didn't know how. Ugh.

Ellie smiled. "Good." Yeah, she did NOT like people in her brain. She was a Terran from a planet where magic was pretty much unheard of, and although she'd gotten used to a lot of alien culture, she'd probably never like having people read her thoughts. Just... yeesh.
She grabbed Shane's hand and started dragging him off to... somewhere. She wasn't really sure where yet, but she'd figure that part out. "Are you excited to see all Starr's adopted kiddos again?" she asked conversationally as they walked.

Shane nodded and smiled as they left his room to head who knew where. "Yeah, it was fun having the kids around to play with. I would like to meet her new kid too, won't be much longer before she hatches."

Matt nodded "yeah... I hope so." He was eager to get going damnit!

---

Hewitt laughed, reaching for his cane and rising from his seat with agonising slowness. "Fine, fine, torment an old man won't you?" He made a big show of how weak and feeble he was.

Ellie nodded. "I just love those kids. The other star dragons' kids are sweet too, but those guys were like, the first." She really did love being their Auntie Ellie.
She looked a little less sure at the mention of Starr's new baby. "Yeah, that is coming up, isn't it? Is Starr excited?" She couldn't imagine Starr being excited, since that baby had such a terrible origin, but then, she didn't think the way Starr did.

~~
Tala wiggled her ears once again. "Good fortune be with you in this endeavor."

~~
Ethan stayed stubbornly seated for a few seconds, then sighed and got up. Nope, he couldn't quite convince himself to be merciless here. This universe really was turning him soft. "Fine, let's go."

~~
Asher would stay with James a while longer, then he'd probably go look for Starr unless she was busy.

Matt smiled at Tala, bowing his head. "and you too." He chuckled. "thanks."

---

Hewitt looked smug and leaned heavily on Ethan. Ahh yes, he was a manipulative bastard and he didn't feel an ouce of guilt about it.

Shane shrugged a little. "I think she is, this is her heir after all. No matter what else, this is Starr's daughter." He said

~~~
Starr had returned to her room to spend time with her egg.

Tala slapped Matt's shoulder companionably, fairly gently for once, then headed for the door.

~~
Ethan let Hewitt lean on him, looking distinctly displeased with this turn of events. He wasn't really comfortable with people touching him, and he didn't like being manipulated either. He had a feeling he was being stupid again, on multiple levels that he couldn't really pinpoint.
But he'd help Hewitt back to his room anyway.

~~
"I guess so," Ellie said, nodding sagely. She looked up at him, "Wait, are you like, the kid's uncle or something? Cause you should be."

~~
Asher would knock on Starr's door. "Starr?"

Matt still winced, Tala was bloody strong even when she was trying not to bowl you over. "yeah uh.. see ya?" He rubbed his shoulder.

---

Hewitt didn't care what Ethan felt, or he didn't notice. He was a bit too focused on himself to really pay any attention to the discomfort of the person he was leaning on. They got back to his room and he made a show of collapsing into a comfortable chair with a loud sigh. "Ahh yes, that's better."

"You will be seen," Tala said cheerily. She trotted off, heading who knew where.

~~
"I'm glad you're happy," Ethan said drily. He rubbed his arm a bit, trying to shake off the feeling of someone else learning on him. "You want anything else, or are you going to take a nap now?"

Seen by what? Matt frowned, utterly confused. Minotaurs were wierd.

----

Hewitt smiled at Ethan, eyes closed. "Mm... I think I shall rest. You will have to amuse yourself without me." He looked pleased with himself, tendril-like roots swaying softly around him.

"Okay." Ethan headed for the door. "See you later, then."

Hewitt grunted a very vuage reply, already drifting off to sleep.

Ethan closed the door behind him, then headed off down the hall, sourly trying to convince his mind to be sensible, dammit.
Didn't work, of course. His arm still felt like someone had just leaned on it, and his general opinion of Hewitt was still... complicated.
He headed for the library, because he wasn't sure where else to go.

Kooshie wrote:"I guess so," Ellie said, nodding sagely. She looked up at him, "Wait, are you like, the kid's uncle or something? Cause you should be."

~~
Asher would knock on Starr's door. "Starr?"

"Sort of, I guess" Shane said with a shrug. "Honorary uncle if nothing else." He added and smiled softly.
~~~
"Come in" Starr said, looking to the door from her place on her pillow-nest-bed.

"I think that's cute," Ellie said. "She can call us Auntie Ellie and Uncle Shane. And we can be so proud cause we're honorarily related to the princess!" Yeah, she was into glamorous titles. Whoo.

~~
Asher went in, smiling when he saw Starr in the pillow nest. Star dragon nests were kind of adorable. "I thought I should come see you since I'll be leaving pretty soon," he said. "And also the egg, since it looks like I won't be here for her hatching." He regretted that he was going to be missing that on top of everything else. It was sad to think of her growing out of her adorable baby dragon phase before he ever met her.

Shane chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, we can be called that." He agreed, though he wasn't big on titles himself.

~~
Starr stood and went to give him a hug. "I will miss you, but we can record her hatching and send the video to you if you want." She offered before going to the incubator to look at the egg again. "We will all be together soon enough."

"We'll be so important." Ellie looked suddenly thoughtful. "Hey, wanna find Matt and we can all celebrate our new family ties and leaving Terra?"

~~
Asher hugged Starr back, then stepped back so he could look at her again. "I'd like that," he told her, smiling. "Of course if you don't want to, then a video of her trying on hats or something would be fine too." Hatching just seemed like such a personal thing, although maybe that was just because he'd never been born so it all seemed a bit mystical to him.
"It's going to be so nice when we can all finally be reunited again."

Shane chuckled and nodded "Yeah, let's find Matt, see if he wants to do something too."
~~~
Starr chuckled at the image that conjured in her mind of the baby trying on hats. "Yes, it will be very nice to all be together as a family again." She agreed happily. "I'll record both for you, if I can."

"It'll be fun, I know he's so hyped up to get out of here," Ellie said. She'd get directions from Vestia, and they'd go looking for Matt.

~~
"Thank you," Asher said gratefully, "That'll be wonderful." Helping to fix the robot rights situation was going to be a miserable job, but he was pretty sure baby dragon videos were even better than cat videos in terms of cheering you up. "And you're doing all right? There's just been so much going on lately."

Matt was awkwardly tidying up his room right now, which was kinda hard when you were in a wheelchair. he'd found one of those grabby extender things and was using that to pick things up, but of course, had gotten distracted trying to pick up heavier things with it so hadn't really tidied much at all. Oops?

Shane went with Ellie to find Matt and knock on his door.

~~~
"I'm alright. We cannot change the past, so all we can do is move forward." Starr said with a small frown. She was trying to at any rate, hard as that was to put into practice.

If Matt said it was okay to come in, Ellie was totally going to bounce into the room with predictable overenthusiasm.

~~
Asher nodded. He was saddened to see that hint of unhappiness in her expression, it always hurt to know that your loved ones were hurting, and there wasn't much you could do to help.
He reached out to put his hand on her shoulder for a few moments. "The world is a better place because of what you're doing for your heir and your people. It might not make what happened to you or them any less painful, but at least you can take comfort in the knowledge that the slavers who did so much harm will someday face justice thanks to you." Yeah, it wasn't the most comforting thing, but the thought had helped him to cope sometimes. Maybe it would Help Starr too, a little bit.

"Yeah?" Matt called. "it's open." He seldom much cared about privacy. He grinned at Ellie as she bounded in, holding up his new grabber thingie.

Starr nodded and smiled softly at him again. "Yes, we can make the future better, even with the past as it is." She said with determination.
~~~
Shane chuckled and followed Ellie in. "Hey Matt, how's it going?" He asked happily.

"Nice prosthetic arm!" Ellie said brightly to Matt, looking around the room. "Yeah, whatcha doing?"

~~
Asher smiled slightly. "And feel free to call me if you want to talk, or need to vent to someone, okay? That's always fine." She'd done so much for him, he wanted to be there for her as well."

"Yeah, I can grab stuff and use it to smack Esk when he's being a dick" Matt grinned, laughing. "Yeah i'm not doing much." He looked around, yeaaah the room wasn't much tidier. He'd gotten distracted oops? He wasn't really a messy person so much as rather... chaotic. He was comfortable surrounded by STUFF and he'd managed to aquire quite a collection of.. well.. stuff.
From the ridiculous child's pink keyboard on the dresser to a few assorted mugs to a cuddly toy kitty that had 'mystereously' appeared one day while he'd been cleaning the kid's play room... ahem.
"You guys excited to go? I mean I know you wanted to see more of Terra Ellie, and we totally will, you know, once they've stopped having a potential civil war and all that yeah?"

Ellie giggled. "I wanna see you smack Esk with that thing sometime." Yeah, she wasn't a big fan of Esk, okay? He always acted like she was stupid, and it pissed her off.
"Yeah, I'm excited to go. I wanna see the baby dragons again, and also like your kiddo and stuff. It's sad to leave Terra though, I mean it's so pretty and special here. But Shane says we can come back and explore someday!" She looked over at Shane, letting him answer for himself whether he was excited to leave or not.