Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty-Three

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"Hey man," James said to Kay, after waiting for a few seconds for the guy to pause his work, and realizing he wasn't going to. "How you holding up?"

~~
"It's my job to care about the books," Ethan said. He tried to look like he had no emotional investment in the state of the library, with moderate success. "Vestia pays me to keep them nice and safe and organized, which they aren't." He watched Esk curiously, "Who put you on janitor duty?"

"We could check on the water park." Shane suggested.

Dawn frowned a little then shrugged. "Why would I?" She asked curiously. It didn't seem like a big issue to her.

"Oh yeah," Ellie smiled at that thought. "That would be worth a look maybe." She'd kinda forgotten the place existed, oops.

~~
James and Esk and the androids would probably manage to get the food moved somewhere. It wasn't easy, but they were all determined. And the robots' ability to shrug off cold and haul heavy stuff helped.

That done, James sighed with relief. "Man, getting to be lazy again is gonna feel so goood after all this."

Luka looked surprised. "You guys don't... think you should actually talk about your feelings?" They were weird weren't they. "Does... does he know how you feel about him?" Were they already dating? omg, what if they were already dating! "you two aren't like.. a thing yet are you?"

----

Esk was shivering badly. Even wearing gloves as he always did was scant protection against frozen goods. He nodded. "I'm... gonna go warm up...." his teeth were chattering. Eugh, stupid organic body.

----

Matt nodded "Sure." He looked to Eva.

"I didn't bring my swim suit." She teased.

"that's what underwear is for!" Matt snickered, putting the lid onto the bottle of spirits he'd been drinking and disappearing it into pocket space before he reached out for his crutches. "let's go get wet!"

Eva started laughing.

"We are friends. We both know there can be nothing beyond that." Dawn said and sighed. "Why is everyone assuming we are dating? He literally cannot touch another person, that by itself forces us to stay platonic even if there was love there."

~~~
Shane got up to follow along with Matt and the others. "It's good to just have fun sometimes."

"See ya later," James said. "I gotta go back to my... other job." Hurrah, medical stuff.

The other androids would probably start heading off too, job done.

~~
Ellie snorted. "I bet Vestia has swimsuits," she said. "I mean if you care enough to want one." She'd follow along with the others.

Luka looked away, whoops. She annoyed Dawn didn't she. "you don't need to touch to love one another..." She shook her head. "I'm sorry... i'll.. i'll shut up."

---

Matt struggled along on his crutches.

Eva followed along.

"We don't need no stinkin' swimsuits." Matt insisted.

---

Esk nodded and went to find a shower, or a bath. A nice hot bath yes. The first class suites totally had tubs.

James would head back to the med bay to make himself useful. He'd go check the medical notes to see what needed to be done.

Although with Kay and Tori on duty, there probably wasn't much to do.

Kay was ridiculously efficient for sure, but he had to eat at some point and right now was having a coffee break and some toast. He didn't usually remember to eat, but he was starting to feel a little faint and something small would keep him going.

Damn workaholic.

James would do some work around the med bay, getting food for people or scanning them or whatever. He also tried to cheer up some of the patients, cause he doubted Kay had bothered to do that.

He didn't have a ton of faith in Kay's bedside manner, nope.

Kay's bedside manner was non existant, he was a triage nurse, there was no time or need for being nice in triage.

flying_purple_monkfish wrote:Luka looked away, whoops. She annoyed Dawn didn't she. "you don't need to touch to love one another..." She shook her head. "I'm sorry... i'll.. i'll shut up."

---

Matt struggled along on his crutches.

Eva followed along.

"We don't need no stinkin' swimsuits." Matt insisted.

---

Esk nodded and went to find a shower, or a bath. A nice hot bath yes. The first class suites totally had tubs.

Dawn sighed and shook her head "Most relationships need a physical touch in them to keep both parties happy. Part of my people's bonding is with physical touch as well as a twinning of our powers."
~~~
Shane chuckled and followed along with them. "That's a personal choice, but I like swimsuits, or at least shorts."

Ellie was giggling in spite of herself now, she found this funny. "We'll wear swimsuits or our clothes or whatever," she decided. "Vestia! Please help us!"

Vestia snorted. "Sure thing, guys. I'll see what I can find."

"Twinning of powers?" Luka asked. "So.. you can only bond properly with members of your own race?"

---

"It is possible to have a mate outside our race, but it is rare enough for that to happen." Dawn said with a shrug. "You must remember, what I know of this subject has come in bits and pieces from my father and uncle. While they mean well, they are uncomfortable speaking on this topic to me."

Luka frowned. "They've never explained!? but.. surely that's really important to know!" She protested, then checked herself. "sorry... i'm sorry... it's.. it's just... back home, sex and relationship education is... compulsary. Even the most sheltered kids from the most backwater colonies get it. We all come to military school at fourteen and we all get taught about healthy realtionships, safe sex, consent.. all that sort of thing. " She shook her head "of course we don't cover aliens becuase you know... it's a bit wierd." She blushed a bit. "But... it's not like most of you guys aren't you know.. basically the same shape with compatable parts right?" She laughed awkwardly and averted her gaze. "sorry... " Yeah, the Imperium was fairly sexually liberated so long as you were straight and didn't date outside your species. She wondered if she should ask Rigel, and then tell Dawn. Rigel would have no excuse for being uncomfortable discussing this with her surely? then again, they kinda... hadn't really gotten intimate yet so...
Hmm.

Vestia would deliver swimsuits, the guys would probably go have fun at the water park. Yay, the water park hadn't been ruined!

Ellie still kinda had a lot on her mind, but she was willing to pretend she didn't. For Matt's sake.

Matt was pretty determined to just distract himself, constantly distract himself and not think.. at all... ever.
which coupled with his drunkeness was sure to result in terrible decisions later.

For now though, he didn't bother getting changed, opting to ease his shoes off, pull off his shirt and swim in his trousers because it was waaaaay easier. Plus he could just dry himself off anyway.

Eva got changed into a swimsuit that Vestia brought along. This ship really did have everything huh?

And so they would swim and splash and be stupid for a bit. As it turned out, Eva had water magic too so soon enough she and Matt were having stupid holding breath contests neither of them could actually lose. Morons.

Dawn flushed and dipped her head a little. "I know the medical side of things well enough, but the whole feelings part..." She ended that thought with a shrug.

~~~
Shane would keep an eye on Matt and play in the water. He wanted to shift and swim as his dragon, but wasn't sure if he should with their visitor there, though she seemed to want to play with Matt more. He was glad of that, he was certain to lose a holding breath contest against those two.

Ellie was a little confused when she saw Eva's water magic. "Wait... you guys aren't biologically related though..." she said, puzzled. Yeah coincidences happened sometimes, but she thought this was weird!
She'd wear a swimsuit from Vestia which was completely boring and didn't have a single sparkle on it, and hang around near Shane, not quite ready to participate in water elemental looniness.
Although she'd probably splash Shane with water... just because.

Luka tilted her head. "Relationships are... complicated." She admitted. Yeah, emotions were hard. You could get told about it but actually being IN a relationship was quite different to just reading about it. Still, she was a hopeless romantic. It was probably all those shitty paperbook romance adventures she read.

---

Eva and Matt stared at one another at ellie's question, then Eva started to laugh. "Oh hell no!"

Matt looked a bit relieved. Yeah he didn't much want more random family, it was messed up.

Eva smiled to Ellie. "I'm an elementalist. I can't create elements but I can manipulate them." She explained.

"what, all of them?" Matt asked curiously.

"Air, fire, earth, water." Eva ticked them off on her fingers. "Kevali can create them, or.. pull them from their elemental or something." She shook her head, sure she'd had it explained to her but the metaphysics of it all was a bit bizarre and alien. "I don't have an elemental to pull power from." nope, just her demonic side. But she didn't mention that.
"Air is easiest." Eva explained, gesturing to their surroundings. "it's everywhere."

"A bit like you and your plants." Matt suggested to Ellie. Cool.

Dawn nodded and smiled "That they are, that's why I like being friends with everyone I can." She said softly.

~~~
Shane smiled at Ellie and would splash her back, just because. "That's pretty cool, dangerous but still cool."

Ellie didn't fully understand the difference. "I thought Matt had to use water that already existed too." She didn't fully understand anything about magic though, nope. She idly splashed some water back at Shane. "That's cool that you can control all the elements though, it's like... you can totally confuse your enemies."

Matt shrugged. He didn't really know how it worked either. "I can call water to myself..."

"how does your brother create fire from nothing then?" Eva questioned.

Matt frowned, that was a damn good question. "I dunno... I never really thought about it."

"As far as i've been able to figure, Kevali don't need the element to be present to create it. Maybe it's just easier to manipulate what's already there." Eva continued. "i can't make fireballs unless I have a lighter on hand, your brother just holds out his hand and there's flame."

Matt nodded slowly "yeah... he set fire to the barn once by mistake.." He laughed a little. "we've never let him live it down."

"Ohhh," Ellie said. "So like, cause there's water in lots of things, he doesn't have to create it himself so we never noticed that he could make water out of nothing. But Web can't just find fire anywhere so he has to make it DIY." She nodded. That... sorta made sense. "Magic is so crazy! It's like, there's a million different kinds of it and it works differently for everyone."

Eva nodded "Yes... I mean... probably." She was not an expert on alien magic after all. "what was that about plants?"

"Your guess is better than mine anyway," Ellie said with a smile. "I have plant magic," she explained, "I can make them grown and heal and do what I want. So we're all kinda magicky here, which is neat, right?"