Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty-Four

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"We could stay here and see if Vestia can start getting some movies on file for us." Shane said with a shrug.

Ethan frowned a little. "Kind of sucks any way you look at it. At least Starr's not poking through your brain uninvited now, I guess." He frowned, "Stupid fucking demons, making everything complicated."

Esk shook his head. "I don't think she'll like what she finds anyway." His mind was weird and he'd experienced and done some pretty horrific things, if Starr decided to go probing around in his head, it was likely she'd find something she didn't want to see.
In absolute crystal detail.

"Is Dawn okay?" He asked after a few minute's silence.

Ethan's mouth twitched into a wry smile. He supposed a crappy life was as good a deterrent to mind readers as any.
He shrugged. "I think Dawn's fine. You didn't hurt her as far as I could tell, her magic is damn useful that way."

"No, she said I didn't hurt her. " He shook his head, he didn't mean physically okay. He was starting to figure Dawn out enough to know this had to suck for her as well, he'd seen the hurt on her face she'd been trying to mask. "I don't think I really could even if I wanted to... "

"As far as whether she's mentally okay, I have no idea," Ethan said. "She left pretty quickly when I took over guard duty from her." He shook his head, "Your guess is as good as mine, you know her better than most of us do."

"She hides her feelings well." Esk mused. "Too well really. I've never been sure if that's a Pandorian thing or just her. " He rubbed his temples, his head hurt even with painkillers. "All her race sort of... repress things, but she... she's weird. Blank... really hard to read. " He sighed. "Even so..." He was worried about her, though he was loathe to admit it. Worrying that she was upset over killing him meant admitting that he meant something to her, which he found difficult. Despite her demonstrating this over and over and telling him repeatedly, a part of him still couldn't quite wrap his head around the idea that someone gave a shit.
Enough of a shit to be upset over all this.
"She'll be alright." He decided.

Ethan nodded. "She's survived a lot already, chances are this won't be the thing that breaks her." Yep, he was going to pretend that was how mental health worked. "It's a good thing you didn't shoot yourself though, that'd fuck up a lot of the crew."

Esk looked skeptical. "Only whoever had to clean the wall." He replied dully. "At least it wasn't a bathroom, blood's a fucking bitch to get out of tiles."

"I don't think it's quite that simple," Ethan said. Hey, he hadn't had to clean up after his owner had shot himself, but those moments were still some of the more vivid of his crappy memories. "People are damn emotional about things, even when it doesn't make sense." He nodded, "You saved the bots a lot of cleaning, regardless."

Dawn nodded "His grandmother was in his head, controlling him, she made it clear to me and Vestia." She said. "Esk knew she was there, said as much when he was himself again." She said quietly.

~~
"He was possessed, the only way to rid someone of possession by these demons is to stop the heart." Starr said and sighed, sitting down and cuddling with Luna.

"Yes, but did you, you know, ask anybody else before drugging Esk? I mean, nearly murdering a guy is something you should get a second opinion on!" James said.

"James!" Dawn said rather loudly before standing then shaking her head "Do you honestly think I would do anything even remotely as dangerous if I had another choice? Go, just go." Even if she hadn't had feelings for Esk himself, saying that she would hurt him without cause went against her medical training.

"You could have made a different choice. There were other options, Dawn," James said. He shook his head, finally realizing just how upset Dawn was. "Sorry. I know you don't need me ranting at you like this. I'm just... really freaked out I guess. I'll go." He turned to leave. "Sorry."

"What other choice James? He was possessed. No one can physically touch him when he's awake, so that rules out things like drowning. We had to stop his heart then bring him back. That was the choice we had." Dawn stated then turned and went to her bed, laying down and trying not to start crying before he was gone.

James looked back at Dawn for a moment, a flicker of disbelief in his eyes. "No one can touch him? Guess I'm no one then, huh?"
Then he hurried off before he'd say anything else he'd regret.

Esk shrugged. "Yeah, lucky bots." He mumbled.

---

Armin pulled Starr into a hug, she looked like she needed a hug. He cuddled her and luna.

Ethan smiled oddly. "It's so nice to have a non-sentient labor class." He shook his head, then looked at Esk, "Can I ask you about the demon? I won't if you don't want to think about it, but I admit, I'm damn curious." Ethan really was making an effort to not be a jerk, although it didn't really come naturally to him.

Esk frowned. "What.. about it?" His head hurt more at that prospect, he winced and tried to ignore it.

Ethan hesitated, then asked, "Do you remember the demon at all? You said there were a lot of memories missing." Vestia had said that she'd heard Esk and the demon talking, and Ethan was curious if Esk remembered that.

Esk closed his eyes, trying to remember. "I don't.. " He blinked, thigs were pretty foggy. "bits? She... wanted my father... She wouldn't give me a good reason though." 'Just because he's mine' wasn't a legitimate reason in his mind. "it's all a bit hazy." He frowned, he didn't like that. At all. "there's.. there's no clarity to any of it, like it was a dream or something."

"I guess that makes sense it'd be foggy, since apparently she was in your head the whole time," Ethan said thoughtfully. "At least she's not here physically, that's something." At least, he was pretty sure she wasn't here physically. Who knew. "What did she say she wanted Hytar for? He must be damn important for her to start possessing people just to find him."

Esk frowned, trying to remember. Shit, this was disconcerting, he wasn't used to not remembering things. He had perfect recall, having dim to no recollection of things was an alien sensation.
"He.. she said he was hers, he belonged to her?" He shook his head. "I think he was a slave." He rubbed his aching head. "Which actually explains a LOT about his hatred for slavers."

"I guess that sort of explains why she'd want to find him," Ethan said. He looked slightly disgusted. "Your father is a shit person, but these guys sound even worse. Let's hope they all burn, I guess."

"yeah.." Esk replied dully, falling silent again.

Ethan fell silent too. There wasn't much more he could think of to say after all, this just sucked.

Esk sighed and lay back down. May as well go back to sleep, maybe it'd help his headache.

---

Matt, Kay and Web stuck together, all of them were worried but Kay especially was fretting and not doing a great job hiding it.

---

Tala might catch scent of Web, whose smell was very different from Matt's since Matt had been soaking in the pool so much lately, and go to look in at the brothers. Hey, she wanted to know what the Matt-like scent meant.